Your Best Win

You ever had a friend, teacher, family member, or anyone u play a lot of chess with and never get to win a game? Well, when u get to win vs that person u really feel like that is your best win. That ever happen to you? With whom? When? How? How did u feel?

The first time for me was back in the late '60s, in high school. As a 10th grader I had played 3rd board on our team, the senior 1st board was a good friend who was graduating. I was the heir apparent, since the 2nd board guy was also a senior who I had passed in strength but only after the club tournament set the team places.

I beat him for the first time shortly after our last team match, and we continued to play over the last weeks of school and the summer, and I was beating him like a drum.

It felt good - it took me two years of trying to beat him once, and from then on I owned him. It felt real good.

Pretty much the same thing happened a few years later with my friend/coach/mentor, who had an aggravating habit of weaseling out of the worst positions to come back and win. But once I started to beat him at all, I soon was whipping him most of the time. He's still dangerous today at nearly 75, but that first win decades ago was very sweet.

I consider my best win to be my very first uscf tournament game. I played a 1900s player and in a very wild game (where is king was chased across to my side of the board) i ended up way down in material but with a mate. I felt great although my rating ended up being much higher than my actual playing strength so for quite a few tournaments after this my rating dropped after each one (which didn't feel so great).

I consider my best win to be my very first uscf tournament game. I played a 1900s player and in a very wild game (where is king was chased across to my side of the board) i ended up way down in material but with a mate. I felt great although my rating ended up being much higher than my actual playing strength so for quite a few tournaments after this my rating dropped after each one (which didn't feel so great).

With proper coaxing, we used to be able to get the late IM Richard Delaune (rhymes with Capone, the Gangster of the Chessboard) to tell of his first tournament game, made ever more fascinating by his dramatic recreation of the event.

"At this point, I realized that this was truly my most brilliant game ever, every move was brilliant. And so I played the equally brilliant Rf8+." Which mated by force if Black played ...Kxf8, but Rich overlooked ...Bb4xf8, and it was back to the drawing board.

Fortunately he was still a piece ahead by force, and traded down until his 1900-rated opponent gave up another piece for Rich's last pawn, forcing him to checkmate with Bishop and Knight alone. He was after all facing an unrated player! But Delaune mated him with a dozen moves to spare.

His self-effacing retelling of the story and showing the game was a memorable pleasure. He is missed.